Dr. Karen Matthews, a distinguished scholar in psychiatry, epidemiology and psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, will present research on cardiovascular risk factors and their psychosocial determinants at key developmental transitions such as adolescence and menopause in the 35th annual Thomas Francis Jr. Memorial Lecture.
Her talk “Getting to the Heart of the Matter: Psychobiological Origins of Cardiovascular Disease,” will be presented at 3 p.m. Jan. 28 in the School of Public Health, Lane Family Auditorium, Room 1690, SPH-Tower.
A reception will be held in Community Room 1680 following the lecture.
Matthews is program director of the Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine Research Training Program and director of the Pittsburgh Mind-Body Research Center. She has won several awards, including the 2005 American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Applications of Psychology.
The Thomas Francis Jr. Memorial Lecture was established in 1970 to honor Francis, the first chair of the Epidemiology Department and internationally known for his commitment to public health due in part to his historic role in evaluating the Salk polio vaccine.
In 1955 Francis made the announcement at Rackham Auditorium with Dr. Jonas Salk about the success of the polio vaccine to eradicate the deadly disease. Salk had developed the vaccine with his research team at the University of Pittsburgh, and Francis had designed and led a nationwide field trial to test the new vaccine. Salk had been a postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Francis at the SPH.
Matthews’ research also has been recognized with awards from the American Heart Association, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, the North American Menopause Society and the American Psychosomatic Society.
For more information, contact Karen Schaefer at [email protected] or 764-5435, or Robin Konkle Mays at [email protected] or 615-8470.
